Silence of the howl
by Mrs Speer
Summary: An AU tale, 27 minutes since he entered the building, 26 minutes from the first 'Kaboom'. Rated for violence, implied and written as well as colourful language.


Hi All.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a looksee at my effort, I'm not being modest, I write what I enjoy and don't pretend it's any good, it is what it is.

I should state out loud and upfront to you I am a serial Logan hurter, so consider yourself warned. The rating is for violence, written and implied, as well as the language that may well pepper this piece of selfish hurt fest I'm writing.

Without further ado. I hope you do enjoy, read on.

Oh, BTW, I don't own the characters, I do this totally for fun and no profit, and no harm intended...well 'cept to Logan eg

**Prologue**

'Kaboom'

You don't expect the sound to be like that in real life, it belongs in a comic book, it sounds like it would be shortly followed by 'thwack' and 'arggh' if it wasn't for the current situation he would have found some humour in that, right before hell was unleashed on everyone within striking distance. He didn't have time for humour he was too busy surviving.

Bringing his hands up to his face he felt to weigh up the damage, correction tried to , he'd lost sensation in his hands, god knows what damage he'd taken. He dropped down in to a small defensive stance and slowly tried to back away from the source of the pain, survival was his dominant instinct. A ringing sensation in his ears robbed him of one acute feral sense, he was waiting for the trusted healing factor to pick up the pace.

He felt another 'kaboom'.

Too soon, not enough time to heal.

He was again flung back into and then through the wall. Panic didn't have time to grab him, as the pain staked her claim, took him and held his last conscious thought before sinking out to the safety of oblivion.

"Logan?"

Pause, then louder

"Logan?"

She waited, concerned playing across her beautiful features.

She moved forward carefully, fully aware what happened to those that surprised Logan and she for one, didn't want to become Marie-kebab, he didn't look like he was in any state to be donating his healing factor to her right now.

She edged forward one step, risked a quick finger poke into his shoulder before jumping back to try and cover her ass for the lash out that would follow.

Nothing.

She risked a look up from the relative safety of her corner of the room to see what he was doing, groaning and rolling to the side, more like a hacking sound she corrected, she stepped up, then began again to move forward carefully, swallowing hard she placed her hand on his muscular shoulder.

"Logan?"

He tried to fling his arm out with a very lacklustre effort, giving up and turning away from her, protecting himself.

She gently placed her hand on his cheek, trying to turn his face towards hers, she felt a gentle pull, concentrating she turned off her mutation slowly

"You're scaring me Logan, please."

It truly was pathetic, she was embarrassed at the pleading in her own voice, her breath hitched in shock as she caught the first glimpse of his face.

"Oh ..."

She knew he would heal, but it didn't stop the pity and shock that she felt right now, she'd not seen him like this...in well forever. He had obvious facial trauma but how badly injured she couldn't tell as the whole area was one bloody mess, he appeared to have injuries to his face, neck, arms, and hands, again she couldn't tell how badly, but she was scared enough to back off and shout for help.

He tried to push them away, he needed more time to heal, there was something familiar about the scent, but he couldn't trust anything right now. Healing factor wasn't working fast enough, he could only hear a loud bass ringing sound, couldn't see anything, blood blinding him.

Who was that?

He felt something on him, flinging his arm out he tried to fend them off, till he caught a familiar scent, relief was short lived as he hoped she wasn't injured, pain, fire pulsed through his arms as the feeling began to slowly return to them, and was again caught short when he felt someone touching him.

He relaxed it was her.

He felt the familiar pulling as she touched him, but then the sensation stopped, her hand on his face as he turned to face her, willing himself to see her, he waited, confused, but comforted by her closeness.

Jean entered the room and crossed over to him, switching to doctor mode as soon as she saw the situation that Marie had called her down to. Dropping down she visually inspected him before talking to him, telling him what she was doing.

"I don't think he can hear you Dr, Grey"

Marie almost whispered from his side, she held on to his arm on the only bit of his skin that didn't appear to be bloodied or bruised, tightening her hold slightly for a moment, before relaxing again.

"I know Rogue, I can.....sense his distress, but that doesn't stop me explaining what I'm doing, his healing will repair the injury, and so I have to assume that he'll begin to hear again in a moment or two"

She smiled tightly before reaching into her bag and withdrawing some field dressings.

"I'm going to bandage your eyes Logan, mainly to stop the kids freaking when we get you on the blackbird, it will also control the blood flow"

She quickly applied the dressings before moving on to assessing the remaining injuries, nothing appeared life threatening, for Logan, and could wait till they were back at the mansion if they weren't healed already. She frowned at the reddening flash burns that started to blister on his arms, this was unusual even for Logan. 27 minutes since he entered the building insisting that they stayed back while he took a look-see, 26 minutes since the first explosion. He should be healing by now.

Panic

He couldn't panic, he wouldn't panic. It would be fine, just taking a little bit longer than normal that's all. The ringing was less, he could make out dull muffled sounds, he couldn't see anything but that was to be expected with the bandages on his face. His skin burned less, either not too badly injured or his healing factor was kicking in, either way good. His throat felt like it was on fire still, he couldn't make anything coherent happen and had grunted in response which seemed to work on the whole, one grunt for pain, and hell another grunt for leave me alone. He played over the previous ½day in his mind, almost scoring himself as he would one of the kids to see where he'd failed, if only this had been a danger room session. Not taking back up was a mistake, but one that he wouldn't be too harsh in the scoring of. Nothing, he'd missed nothing, no strange scent, nothing to alert the Wolverine. He'd didn't want to admit it but he'd been well and truly out manoeuvred.

Leaving instructions to gather as much of the device as they could, she went with Logan to the airplane, thin lipped as she concentrated on Logan and his injuries.

She'd added throat/vocal cord injury to the growing list, he'd tried to say something when they 'd lifted him on to the stretcher, but a strangled incoherent croaking came out in the place of words, she had to assume either heat or chemical burn, probably into the lungs. Her brows knitted as she began to suspect that this was a meditated attack, someone knew how to effectively take out a Wolverine.

**TBC....**

Well it is what it is :)


End file.
